Faculty honors

Faculty members honored for outstanding teaching and advising

Trustee Emeritus Stephen Weiss, left, and his wife Suzanne, far right, join President Jeffrey Lehman, third from left, with Weiss Presidential Fellowship recipients, from left, Geri Gay, Louis Albright and Kenneth McClane. Alexis Wenski-Roberts/Veterinary Image Lab

Trustee Robert Appel, left, and his wife, Helen, pose with Ted O'Donoghue, center left, and Charles Brittain, who both were honored with Appel Fellowships. Two other recipients, Amy Villarejo and David Yearsley, were unable to attend the ceremony. Alexis Wenski-Roberts/Veterinary Image Lab

Peter Lepage, left, the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and trustee emeritus Robert Paul, far right, pose with Paul Awards winners, from left, Stuart Davis and Walter Mebane. Alexis Wenski-Roberts/Veterinary Image Lab

Trustee Stephen Ashley, center right, and his wife Janice, are flanked by the four Carpenter Award recipients, from left, Marshall Cohen, Dale Grossman, Brian Earle and Charles Brittain. Alexis Wenski-Roberts/Veterinary Image Lab

Twelve distinguished Cornell faculty members were honored during a special dinner on campus March 11 for their outstanding teaching and advising. Winners of the annual Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellowships were awarded along with recipients of the Robert and Helen Appel Fellowships for Humanists and Social Scientists, the Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Awards and the Robert A. and Donna B. Paul Awards for Excellence in Advising.

Cornell Vice Provost Isaac Kramnick, who welcomed the guests and introduced the program in Trillium of Kennedy Hall, said: "It was true in 1917 when E.B. White came to Cornell and it is true for the Class of 2004: Professors still transform students' lives, and we are here tonight to honor 12 such faculty." President Jeffrey Lehman followed with remarks, and Provost Biddy Martin made the presentations of the award winners.

The university's new winners of Weiss Fellowships, which recognize excellence in teaching, advising and outstanding efforts toward instructional improvement and development, are: Louis D. Albright, professor, Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering; Geraldine K. Gay, professor, Department of Communication; and Kenneth A. McClane Jr., the W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Literature, Department of English. The awards -- $5,000 for five years for each tenured faculty member -- are named for Stephen H. Weiss '57, emeritus chair of the Cornell Board of Trustees, who endowed the program. Appointed fellows are selected by Cornell's president from nominees recommended by a committee composed of faculty members and students.

Established by Helen '55 and Robert Appel '53 in 1995, the Appel Fellowships honor creativity in teaching and research among newer faculty. The fellowships enable recipients to take a year's sabbatical leave, at full salary, to write, develop new courses, conduct research or otherwise enrich their teaching and scholarship. The awardees are: Charles Brittain, associate professor, Department of Classics (who also received a Carpenter Award); Ted O'Donoghue, associate professor, Department of Economics; Amy Villarejo, associate professor, Department of Theatre, Film and Dance; and David Gaynor Yearsley, associate professor, Department of Music.

Stephen Ashley '62, MBA '64, established the Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Awards in honor of his former adviser and professor of business management. The awards reinforce the Cornell commitment that advising undergraduate students is a top priority at the university. Honored are: Charles Brittain; Marshall M. Cohen, professor emeritus, Department of Mathematics; Brian O'Hara Earle, senior lecturer, Department of Communication; and Dale Arrison Grossman, senior lecturer, Department of Applied Economics and Management.

The Paul Awards, established by Robert '59 and Donna Paul, are given annually to dedicated undergraduate advisers who make a difference in the lives of the Cornell students they inspire. They were established in 1992 through grants from the Louis and Sandra Berkman Foundation and the Fair Oaks Foundation as part of an endowment for academic advising in the College of Arts and Sciences. This year's awardees are: Stuart Davis, senior lecturer, Department of English; and Walter Richard Mebane Jr., professor, Department of Government.

Here are descriptions of the award winners, excerpted from Martin's remarks:

Louis D. Albright

Albright specializes in the thermal environment of buildings that house plants and animals and their energy use and management, and he consults with a number of organizations and industries. He teaches programming and applied computer applications, and also offers classes in Introduction to Energy Technology, Bioenvironmental Engineering, Animal and Plant Environment and Integrated Hydroponics and Aquaculture. As a teacher, Albright is highly regarded for integrating his research into his teaching and emphasizing real-world situations. He is known for learning his students' names within a week after the start of classes.

Geraldine K. Gay

Gay is the founder and director of the Cornell Human Computer Interaction Group (HCI Group), a laboratory that is recognized nationally and internationally as a pioneer in the field of human computer interaction. Gay's research interests focus on cognitive and social issues for the design and use of interactive communication technologies. She teaches courses in interactive multimedia design and research, computer-mediated communication, human-computer interaction and the social design of communication systems. As a scholar and researcher, she successfully transforms undergraduate classrooms into research laboratories for effective learning.

Kenneth A. McClane Jr.

A poet and essayist, McClane began his teaching career at Cornell in 1976, becoming a full professor in 1992. McClane is the author of six volumes of poetry and was awarded the 2002 Distinguished Prose Award from the Antioch Review. He is known as a superbly successful teacher of creative writing at all levels of the curriculum, as well as a passionate and inspiring writer and speaker. He has made a major contribution to the teaching of creative writing at Cornell and has received the Clark Distinguished Teaching Award in the College of Arts and Sciences. One faculty member has stated, "For 27 years, he's given the university and its students everything he has."

Charles Brittain

Brittain's scholarly work focuses on Hellenistic and later Roman philosophy. Among the Cornell courses Brittain teaches are classes in ancient philosophy, Greek philosophical texts and Plato's psychology. He is the author of Philo of Larissa, The Last of the Academic Sceptics, providing a starting point for any further study of this Hellenistic philosopher. His current projects include a study of Augustine's epistomology and a translation of Cicero's Academica. As an instructor, Brittain teaches both Greek and Latin, conveying his deep commitment to his subject, as well as promoting stimulating classroom discussions. He has directed campus reading groups on Greek literature and Late Latin. Brittain also is one of this year's recipients of the Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Award.

Ted O'Donoghue

O'Donoghue, a major force in the field of behavioral economics, is known for his scholarly innovation and promise. With Matthew Rabin of the University of California-Berkeley, he has published a number of articles on the topic of self-control problems that can arise in intertemporal choice settings, and applications of these ideas to various economic settings. O'Donoghue teaches courses on graduate behavioral economics, graduate and undergraduate industrial organization, and undergraduate intermediate macroeconomics. An outstanding teacher, he receives high marks from his undergraduate students even when teaching outside of his specialty in microeconomics. He is known on campus for his accessibility to all students and is an active contributor to his department and professional field.

Amy Villarejo

Villarejo is one of the leading figures of her generation in film and media studies. She joined the Cornell faculty in the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance in 1997. In her forthcoming book Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire, Villarejo uses films on Cuba, on Jewish exiles in Shanghai during World War II and on Canadian cultural history. She is currently on sabbatic leave exploring those moments when race relations became the center of attention in popular sites -- from wartime radio broadcasts to television "anthology" dramas. She is an exceptional teacher whose goal is to empower students to do intellectual work, to read difficult texts of all sorts with care and to undertake work collectively. She is in demand on campus as a teacher, adviser and mentor.

David Gaynor Yearsley

Yearsley is accomplished in organ performance and as a musicology scholar. The winner of numerous prizes in national and international competitions, he was awarded the top prize at the International Schnitger Organ Competition in 1992 and in 1994, and won first prize at the Bruges Early Music Festival. His scholarly work focuses on late 17th- and early 18th-century music and has appeared in the Journal of the American Musicological Society and Music and Letters. His forthcoming book, The Meanings of Bach's Counterpoint, is expected to be a major achievement in postwar Bach scholarship. Yearsley teaches courses on 17th- and 18th-century German music, J.S. Bach and the history of keyboard music. As a teacher, he is highly regarded for his deep knowledge and love of his subject, as well as his gift of communicating his enthusiasm to his students.

Marshall M. Cohen

Cohen is a geometric topologist and combinatorial group theorist. Much of his work has been concerned with the introduction of combinatorial and algebraic themes into geometric problems and geometric themes into combinatorial and algebraic problems. He is the author of the book A Course in Simple-Homotopy Theory as well as numerous articles. Cohen says that he values his role of teacher above all else, declaring, "Happy is the person who comes to understand something and then gets to explain it." Cohen was the first recipient of the Robert and Donna Paul (Dean's) Award for Advising in the College of Arts and Sciences in 1992.

Brian O'Hara Earle

Earle's professional interests include interpersonal communication and organizational communication, with particular emphasis on organizational culture and leadership, research on placement interviews and interpersonal interactions in all forms of interviews. Earle is involved in college and university efforts to improve pre-college communication with prospective students as well as first-year experiences of new students. He consistently advises double the average load of students in the communications department. Earle also is in demand across campus and in the Ithaca area for workshops and seminars.

Dale Arrison Grossman

Grossman holds a joint appointment in the Department of Applied Economics and Management and the Department of Communication. She also is a lecturer in the S. C. Johnson Graduate School of Management. She joined the Cornell faculty in 1980 after serving for three years as the university judicial administrator. Grossman teaches several law-related courses including business law, communications law (Internet law) and estate law and advises a large number of undergraduate students. She received the Professor of Merit Award in 1993 and was acknowledged as an outstanding teacher by Merrill Presidential Scholars four times. Most recently, the senior class named her the D.C. Burgett Distinguished Advisor.

Stuart Davis

An outstanding teacher, Davis won the Clark Distinguished Teaching Award in 1995. A good citizen, he has served on numerous university committees, including English department's curriculum committee. He also serves as the coordinator of the Arts college electronic classroom and has developed prize-winning software for a course that he teaches on Writing in the Electronic Age. Davis' current popular course on Shakespeare and the 20th century compares some of Shakespeare's most notable plays with their 20th-century adaptation in fiction, theater and film and explores the uses made of Shakespeare in education, advertising and public culture. In addition, Davis teaches courses on philosophic fictions, reading as writing, introduction to drama, and making the news.

Walter Richard Mebane Jr.

Mebane is a political scientist with teaching and research interests in elections, fiscal policy, federalism, political methodology and mathematical modeling. Currently, he is on leave to conduct research at Harvard University through a grant from the National Science Foundation; he will return to Cornell in Fall 2004. Before arriving at Cornell, he taught at the University of Michigan. Mebane has published extensively, and some of his recent political analyses have addressed how elections affect taxing and spending for social welfare and the effects that local government fiscal activity have on local economic conditions. He also is developing mathematical models and statistical tests of the provocative idea that the American political system is based on widespread coordination among voters.

March 18, 2004